I’m not Charlie.
Yes.
It was a terrible act and one that deserves to be condemned.
12
cartoonists and journalists shot to death in cold blood.
But
language can play surprising tricks on our unconscious when speediness takes
over the media and pushes us harder than we know, between dichotomies. Almost
on the same day of the shootings, people all over the world, on and off social
forums,
donated
their sympathy to a whirlpool of split opinion upholding the identity of a
magazine and institution in France,
hailing:
‘Je suis Charlie’.
I’m not Charlie.
Falling into a locking polarization in camps of
reductionism,
innocent humorists expressing their right to articulation,
revengeful extremists trying to take “others” freedom away;
you’re either “with us” or “against us”,
a reiteration of Bush’s post 9/11 ticket to war,
a political tactic imposed by powers beyond our means.
I’m not Charlie
and I’m also not absolving those who committed this
crime.
But tragic incidents that seemingly arise without warning
produce more living victims in the aftermath
by dividing public opinion deeper between imbedded supporters
of a war on Muslims and defenders of second-class citizens in western
“democracies”.
to future judgments,
yours continuing,
Maria Petrides
